


Anniversary

by therune



Category: Avengers (Comic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-19
Updated: 2012-04-19
Packaged: 2017-11-03 22:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/386653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anniversaries of different kinds with Steve and Tony.<br/>It's not as happy or pleasant as it sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anniversary

_A grave is braced not just by a tombstone but by angels as well.  
~Adabella Radici~_

He looked down the row of tombstones: white blocks of stone against the grass which was so green that it seemed unreal.

The wind was blowing, rustling through the trees as it rushed over the stones and fled from the cemetery toward the sun.

The heaven was of the same shade of unreal as the grass.  
Despite the warmth of this summer day, Steve shivered slightly. How could he not be moved by the last resting place of his fellow men and friends?  
They had died back in the war, yet he was still around. It seemed unfair to him....he was given a second chance they would never have. He had known so many great men at that time - courageous men, strong men, men with the unyielding to fight for what they knew was right, men who fought for freedom.  
And Steve - he failed to save Bucky. Why did he deserve a second chance and not his young friend? God, he missed him. He missed them.  
Exactly one year had passed since they had thawed him from the ice.  
The Avengers - men and women, ever as proud, ever as courageous, ever as loyal as his fellow soldiers.  
Steve liked to think that he knew now why he was still here, still alive: his mission was not ever . He was still needed.  
And here he would stay, until the world was finally at peace and he could rest with his friends - for all eternity.

 

 

 

_Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.  
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery_

"I love you," Tony said abruptly. They were lying on a beach, gazing at the stars.  
Without breaking eye-contact with the firmament, Steve took Tony´s hand. "I love you, Tony."  
Tony snuggled closer to him.  
"Is this how you envisioned our first annniversary as a couple?" Steve asked.  
"No," replied Tony, "it´s even better."  
Steve felt overwhelmed - his love for Tony was nothing like he´d ever felt before. It gave you the dizzy rush of a crush and the yearning in his gut from the physical attraction. He felt like there were butterflies in his belly like with his first sweetheart. With love came the warmth from his heart and an utter sense of belonging-together. Steve felt strong enough to challenge a god and still somehow unsure why Tony loved him. There was both a new, exotic tingle when they touched and the calm soothing of familiarization at the same time. Under the stars he felt both smaller and bigger as ever before. He felt like he could touch the sky if he just reached out with his hand...but why grasp for the sky if love already is in your palm?

 

 

_Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.  
~Emily Dickinson~_

Cold wind whipped at Tony´s face. He could have worn the faceplate and the armor, but he needed to do this without a mask. Nothing should ever be between him and Steve again. The cold must have been agonizing, but he didn´t feel it. His heart was already frozen, why not let his body join it?  
There was so much he wanted to say, needed to say to Steve, but no words came out for no ear was there to hear them.

The sky was the same unreal shade of blue as the sea.

Tony didn´t know for how long he stod there, looking at the sea, looking at Steve´s final grave and feeling nothing. Tony used to think that he was like fire; fast, furious, unstoppable, uncontrollable, and that he would be going out with a big explosion, burning too bright to keep doing so for long.  
His flame was exstinguished by a gunshot, by a dying whisper.  
He wanted to tell Steve that he loved him, that he needed him, that he was sorry, that it wasn´t worth it, and how bad he wanted to join Steve.  
But he didn´t deserve any of it, no consolation, no future.  
He was here to clean up his own mess, to stop the world from going any worse and when that would be over....


End file.
